(1) Field of the Invention
The expression pneumatic tents usually refers to inflatable tents and floating dome tents which are used where a simpler and faster installation, a low transport weight, a small packing size and possibly an increased advertising effectiveness are of significant importance.
(2) Description of Related Art
These pneumatic tents are often used only briefly, for example, as storage tent on large construction sites, as advertising pavilion, as a service tent for military operations, as a medical tent, as an emergency shelter, as a dwelling for traveling exhibitions, as festival hostel or as a pavilion for sports events,
For the construction of pneumatic tents, three basic designs have dominated the market, wherein for maintaining the required internal pressure, the pneumatic tents are either filled with air only once and then closed off by valves, or a fan/compressor is operated permanently.
It is immanently important for the first design that the tent skin forming the shell of the tent is double-walled and subdivided into chambers, wherein each chamber is inflated individually or several chambers are inflated together.
The structure of a geodesic dome, which is supported by a positive pressure generated by the blower and has a correspondingly designed pressure lock for access, is distinguished from this double-walled design.
Lastly, the frame construction with an inflatable frame shall be mentioned, wherein the frame is at least partially covered by an additional tarpaulin forming an outer skin. Such tent structures are cherished primarily in camping applications, in the advertising industry and sporting events because of their almost limitless functional design and visual appearance and moreover, because no—often cumbersome—framework is required for their construction.
The latter types of pneumatic tents have manufacturing limitations when offerings of so-called star-shaped canopy tents as purely pneumatic tents are commercially desirable. Star-shaped canopy tents differ from other tents in that they have a greater height and thus provide a more comfortable “sensation of space” for the user.
Star-shaped canopy tents are composed, in essence, of a single vertically extending, centrally placed post usually made of aluminum or wood, and a dome-shaped tent skin extending across the apex of the post and distally guyed at several points by tensioning elements and thereby anchored in the ground. The assembly of such a post, which is inherently heavy due to its normal length of 4 m to 12 m, requires at least two people for assembly/disassembly, which inevitably represents an organizational and financial burden.
It has not been possible to date with the solutions currently available on the market to replace the heavy, centrally-placed aluminum or wooden post with a more manageable structure.